Don Waddell’s Resignation Caps A Busy Week For Canes

By AIDAN JENSEN

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I think we can all agree the ending to Game 6 of the Carolina Hurricanes-New York Rangers was disappointing.

If you’ve watched the Canes in recent years, though, it also wasn’t surprising.

Carolina carried a 3-1 lead into the third period, just 20 minutes away from forcing a Game 7, only for Chris Krieder to score a hat trick and advance New York to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Had the Canes won, they would’ve overcome a 3-0 series deficit.

On Sunday, May 19, Carolina committed to the best head coach it’s ever had in franchise history, signing Rod Brind’Amour to a multi-year extension. The Canes have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the six years since Brind’Amour took over, including the 2018-2019 campaign that snapped a decade-long playoff drought, plus a pair of ECF appearances.

There was some debate – after the Canes-Rangers series – if Brind’Amour was the reason Carolina kept falling short of the Stanley Cup Finals. His extension answered that question crystal-clear – no.

Longtime Canes general manager Don Waddell, who helped draft current stars Sebastian Aho, tmakes you wonder if Carolina owner Tom Dundon met behind closed doors after the Rangers series.

One of Waddell’s jobs, as the former Canes GM, was to boost the roster with free agent signings and trades. Waddell did a great job in the offseason and at the trade deadline this year, grabbing Jake Guentzel, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting, but that was his most active stretch as GM.

There’s concern that the Canes’ championship window is closing, but they have a lot of young talent. Eric Tulsky, Carolina’s longtime assistant GM, is taking over the GM post until a full-timer is found.

Can the Canes’ next GM be aggressive and make the sacrifices needed to help bring a second Stanley Cup to Raleigh, like signing an elite goaltender?